It’s been a month since I’ve been to my apiary. This is unacceptable on every level. I can only hope that the unrelenting rain has kept my bees from gathering too much honey – Mo Honey, Mo Problems.

I have no excuse – I have simply not made my bees a high enough priority. However, for the rest of the season, my bees will only be second to necessity.

Now it’s not that I haven’t been working on the bees at all, in fact I have cut out 300 frame sides and I am halfway through cutting out 120 top bars. And while it it is a huge money saver to make my own frames, it is an incredibly monotonous and time consuming chore – much akin to digging dog shit out of your shoe with a stick (if you had 150 pairs of dog shit covered shoes.)

Since my crappy table saw will not accommodate a dado blade, I am forced to make a total of 15 cuts per side piece – that’s 4,500 cuts and took about 7 hours. The top bars will also require 22 cuts each – that will be another 2,600 cuts. I will finish them this week but I don’t know if my bees can wait.

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Because of that, I conceded to buy 200 plastic frames from Dadant for $2.10 each (the discounted price for buying 200). That was $420 and they will arrive tonight. So I will make my splits Wednesday.

As for tonight, necessity is getting first priority. My truck has been having some front end issues that I have been putting off fixing. However, yesterday, it reached a critical point and now I have no choice. Thanks to YouTube, I can fix anything – unfortunately, YouTube can’t diagnose problems. When the noise first started, I googled the symptoms and concluded that it was a tie rod end.

The trouble with a tie rod end is that after I fix it, I will still have to pay someone else to realign it. However, now it sounds like my hub assembly might be the problem OR may also be the problem. I won’t know until tonight, when I take the tire off and look.

For now, all I can do is pray that the truck is an easy fix and that my bees can holdout a couple more days.

AS FOR MY DIET:

I am down 26.4lbs. Not amazing given it’s been 7 weeks – but still not bad.

My cousin gave me a great tip for eating out. Since he is a corporate pilot and has to eat out a lot, to control portions, he cut’s everything on his plate in half when it first comes to the table. He then eats half and covers the rest with a napkin (out of sight, out of mind).

It reminds me of that old Rita Rudner joke, “To save calories, I cut my dessert in half. If it’s really good, I order two.”

Nonetheless, I did try this tip Saturday at Captain D’s and by doing so, cut my meal from 1,100 calories to 550 calories.

This whole thing is a lifestyle change that I am actually beginning to embrace. Friday after work, I literally had this thought, “I can’t wait to eat this apple and drink some water.” Perhaps this is what it’s like to loose your mind.